Power supplies have typically been designed using analog components. An analog Frequency Response Analyzer (FRA) is utilized by design engineers to achieve optimum performance and limit failure situations in the design of such analog power supplies.
Increasingly, some of the analog control components in power supplies are being replaced with microcontroller-based solutions to provide more versatility in design solutions and provide real-time status and control of power supplies from external systems. Analog Frequency Response Analyzers are unable to connect to and capture information in key locations in power supply designs utilizing these digital solutions. Hence, they are limited in their measurement abilities of digital designs to provide the necessary detailed data for accurate design implementation by the engineer.
In particular, currently, there are no solutions in existence for performing complete loop/gain (FRA) measurement on power implementations utilizing microprocessors. Use of an Analog FRA provides only limited loop measurement capability, insufficient for most design work.
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